On to London Town

I'm in London--wow. That seems a bit surreal. But I'm here! I left Mandy and Adrian at the Nottingham station yesterday (no tears, because they'll be at the conference next week, and I won't mention what happened as we were leaving their house and I tried to walk down the stairs with all my luggage and socks on my feet. It was graceful, of course.) and headed off to London, meeting my coworker Jeremy on the way.

Due to scheduling and booking problems, I wasn't able to find a place to stay for last night.. so I took to the floor of my coworkers hotel room, and which hotel charged a really big fee to add my little self to this room. The smallest hotel room in the world!! Seriously..about three feet around the bed in the whole room.. then they had a tv, a closet and a desk all crammed into the space. After we laughed a little (because otherwise, we might have cried..)We dropped our stuff, and went off in search of food. (because that makes everything better)

Which we found in a pub called the Swan. Since we both got a taste for Carvery when we were visiting our people to the north--we went in search of it again--it was pricey, but very good (and you had that lovely pub atmosphere). Then we went off to shop.

I'm not sure if I can describe the feeling I got when I went into Primark which Jeremy assured me had great prices and I was in need of some socks (the ones I brought being too thin for miles of walking). Think the busiest store you know, the Saturday before Christmas--and that might give you a sense of the crowds---but they were interesting because they were from all over the world. It was unreal. You could barely move without running into someone..and there was a ninety percent chance you wouldn't have a clue whet they were saying. I found some socks, met Jeremy at our designated area (because it would be easy to get lost) and then went to stand in the queue (pronounced "Q", meaning "line") to pay.

While waiting for the young black guy behind the counter to run my card through his machine, I noticed his name on his tag--his last name was the same as mine. So I took my ID out and showed him my name--he thought I was just showing him my ID--but I said "No.. look at my name! See?" and then he saw--and he smiled so big! It was great.. "oh really? You too? Do your family come from Ireland?" It was a great moment. He said his relatives with our name live in North Carolina and he had visited them the previous month. So we just assured each other that we're everywhere and may take over the world very soon..I wished him a very good day and made my way through the melee to the front door.

So we shopped some more and it was just exhausting because even the sidewalks outside were packed wall to wall with people--so we ended up splitting up--Jeremy went to shop, and I went out on the underground (or the tube) to Notting Hill Gate to check out the Portebello Market. So cool. Little stands all set up. Unfortunately, most were packing up--but some were still there--it was such a great atmosphere. Antiques mixed with produce and your average flea market stuff, and again, people from all over the world. I was bummed to only see the tail end--but I found out that there are more street markets during the week as well.. yay. Oh, get this.. an Italian lady stopped me and asked me where the "Blue Door" from the film was...there actually is a little shop called 'The Blue Door" I don't know if there is any connection.. but I thought it funny.

I met up with Jeremy again and we wandered the streets in search of some food that wouldn't break the bank--and was open after seven--no small trick around here. We finally found a fish restaurant and had some more fish and chips. Tried haddock this time--I think I prefer cod--but now I know--the chips were excellent as well.

We made it back to our little box of a room.. I got an extra blanket so I had something to sleep on--that turned out to be a bit scratchy--but I made do. It wasn't the best night of sleep I ever had--what with the extremely loud going ons outside the necessarily open window and the non-air conditioned room and the scratchy blanket.. not to mention the really hard floor-- but it was only one night.. and I survived to see the morning...

And we took the tube (that's such a cool phrase) which is getting easier to figure out...to Paddington (no kidding) and parted ways with Jeremy (he was headed to the airport to meet another coworker in order to drive their way to Holland) and took the Bakerloo --and found my hostel where the nice lady at the desk stored my luggage and let me use the internet for an exorbitant fee.

I'm off in search of some breakfast and to explore the new neighborhood. I like my new digs better already--there's hanging flower baskets outside the front windows doesn't that make everything better?? Happy Sunday to all of you.